


How the Cutie Crumbles

by Insufferable_KnowItAll



Category: Animaniacs
Genre: Animaniacs angst, Animaniacs fluff, Dot Centric, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I wouldn’t be a true fan if I didn’t delve into angst every once in a while
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:34:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28785765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Insufferable_KnowItAll/pseuds/Insufferable_KnowItAll
Summary: Here’s a bit of angst to spice things up! Don’t worry, we’ll forge ahead into pure fluff. Dot’s cute! It says so in the theme song! However, a cosmetic error sends her into a spiral of doubt. Can her brothers help her to see her value beyond her appearance? You betcha!
Relationships: Dot Warner & Wakko Warner & Yakko Warner
Comments: 7
Kudos: 36





	How the Cutie Crumbles

Dot’s agonized wail rattled the water tower. It reverberated off of the walls and seeped into every crevice. It seemed to strike her brothers like lightning.  
Before they were even aware of doing so, Yakko threw his book aside and Wakko dropped the project he was tinkering with. Yakko sprinted to the bathroom with Wakko hot on his heels. The pair skidded to a halt in the doorway.  
They expected the worst.  
Maybe she had slipped in the bathtub and broken a bone.  
They could deal with that.  
Perhaps the titanoboa had emerged from the toilet.  
Well, they would fight it off together.  
Oh, god, what if Baloney the dinosaur had broken in and trapped her in his hellish orange embrace?  
She was toast.  
After all, what would warrant such a pained shriek?  
They found Dot hunched over, tears streaming down her cheeks. Something black was clutched in her fists.  
“...Dot?” Yakko asked, slowly advancing towards his younger sister. Wakko followed his lead.  
Dot let out a strangled sob in response, scrunching her face further. She shied away from her brothers.  
“Are you hurt?” Yakko asked gently, kneeling beside her.  
She whipped her head to the side, as if she didn’t want to be seen, and swallowed hard.  
“N-No,” she stammered.  
Her voice was so… small.  
Wakko knelt in front of Dot, who turned her head farther in an attempt not to be seen. He carefully laid a hand on Dot’s trembling fist.  
She lurched forward, wrapping his arms around Wakko’s waist and burying her face in his shoulder. She instantly saturated his sweater with tears.  
He ran his hand over the back of her head reassuringly. He balked about halfway down. He locked eyes with Yakko, who looked shot back a perplexed look.  
“Dot, what happened?” Wakko asked softly.  
When she pulled away, they noticed a significant chunk of fur was shorter on the left side of her face. The gap was framed by the remaining fur, which cradled her cheek, dipped in at a sharp angle where it had been hacked off, and then extended out into its usual peak near her ears.  
“I w-was cutting my hair a-and… I… I… I _sneezed_ ,” she cried, thrusting her fist forward. She unclenched it. A bundle of silky black fur sat in her trembling palm.  
She threw it against the floor in a sudden burst of anger. Her beautiful fur was gone. And it was her own fault.  
The fiery anger that burned bright in her chest was snuffed out just as quickly as it had erupted. She was left with a sorrow so profound it made her chest ache.  
It wasn’t about the hair. Not really.  
It was about herself.  
Dot nestled herself against Wakko’s chest, squeezing her eyes tight in an attempt to redirect her focus onto his heartbeat.  
The steady thump soothed her.  
When the brothers locked eyes again, they had to stifle laughter.  
A _sneeze_ had marred her beauty.  
The shriek, the tears, the burst of rage... it was all because of one poorly-timed sneeze.  
Yakko was in a significantly better position to hide his laughter, as Dot had buried her face in Wakko’s shirt.  
Dot felt her face heat up in embarrassment. Her brothers were laughing at her.  
Not outright, no, but obviously they found the situation worlds funnier than she did. She could tell by the way Wakko shook with suppressed laughter and by the erratic bouts of snickering she heard from Yakko’s direction.  
Their laughter confirmed the fear she had been harboring for years—she was the odd one out.  
Her brothers didn’t worry about their appearance. They weren’t defined by the way they looked anyway, so why would they care?  
They could cut their hair _blindfolded_ and it wouldn’t matter.  
They were described by their actions, but all Dot got was “ _cute_.” Cute wasn’t something you _did_ , it was something you _were._  
Something she had always been.  
If she wasn’t the cute one, who was she?  
Dot curled her fingers into Wakko’s sweater as if she were afraid he would disappear. Her tiny frame was wracked with renewed sobs.  
Dot, with her massive personality, had never looked as small as she truly was.  
Now, she seemed so minute, so frail.  
“I’m… I’m not cute anymore! You… you don’t need me if I… If I’m not,” she bawled.  
Yakko and Wakko weren’t laughing anymore.  
Dot couldn’t _possibly_ believe that about herself.  
Could she?  
“Dot, that’s ridiculous. Do you know what we’d be without you?” Yakko asked, resting a reassuring hand between her shoulder blades.  
She shook her head lamely.  
“Incomplete,” Wakko chimed in. He laid his hands on hers. Dot’s fists were still clutching his sweater like she thought they would chuck her out of the tower if she let go.  
Yakko nodded, “Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca the Third, you are more valuable to us than we could ever put into words. Your looks don’t even come into play here. We would love you even if you looked like Ralph.”  
“Or Yakko!” Wakko chirped.  
Yakko shot him a dirty look, “Or even if you were as unsightly as Wakko.”  
Dot giggled between sobs, “We all have the same face.”  
“But yours is by far the cutest!” Yakko said, giving her an Inuit kiss.  
“Besides, sister sibling,” he added, “if the word cute was removed from the English, we’d still have a million other adjectives to describe you. Impassioned. Clever. Outgoing. Witty. Charming, compassionate, courageous! And let’s not forget _stubborn_!”  
Yakko tickled Dot’s sides as he emphasized the last word. She giggled, instinctively squirming away. Yakko persisted until Dot was cackling and pushing his hands away. He relented. She giggled between gasping breaths.  
“And you have a wonderful laugh,” Wakko confided with a massive grin.  
“You’re so much more than cute, Dot. We’d be lost without you,” Yakko stated, suddenly more serious than she’d ever seen him, “If this is really bothering you, we can talk to the studio about it. We’ll make sure they listen, one way or another. Until then, all we can do is tell you how much we care about ya.”  
“We love you,” Wakko agreed, as serious as one can look with their tongue hanging out.  
One of Dot’s hands released Wakko’s sweater and flew to Yakko’s shoulders. She pulled her brothers into a hug.  
Yakko and Wakko’s heads collided with a loud thud.  
“They weren’t kidding when they said you were hard-headed, Wak, jeez,” Yakko groaned, rubbing a spot above his temple.  
“Well, yours isn’t any better!” Wakko protested.  
They began to bicker. Wakko dug a finger into his older brother’s chest. Yakko prattled on at about twice the speed of his younger brother. Their shouts grew unintelligible.  
Dot rolled her eyes, “Come on. Knock it off, you two.”  
They didn’t hear her over the din.  
She scowled at the pair. They continued to argue.  
 _Boys_.  
“Cut it out already!” Dot yelled.  
The two stopped in their tracks, mouths still agape. Their eyes flickered to her.  
Dot shook her head disdainfully, “Do you want the hug or not?”  
“Truce?” Wakko asked, offering a hand to his older brother.  
“Truce,” Yakko agreed, shaking it. He raised his eyebrows in shock, “Wakko, why is your hand sticky?”  
Wakko’s usual grin overtook his face, “I was eating ice cream with my hands!”  
Yakko nodded nonchalantly, as if that was a perfectly normal occurrence.  
Wakko advanced towards Dot, arms outstretched.  
“Uh uh, you’re not touching me until you wash your hands. I’ve had enough problems with my fur today,” she proclaimed, pointing to the sink.  
After he had obliged, Yakko and Wakko swept Dot into a hug, carefully to stay far enough apart this time around. They took turns pressing a kiss onto the crown of her head.  
As annoying as they could be, Dot was sure she’d be lost without them, too. She held them a bit tighter.  
“I love you guys, too,” she said softly.  
They helped her off of the floor.  
Yakko discreetly tossed the bundle of discarded hair into the trash.  
“Let’s eat some ice cream, ok? Preferably not with our hands this time around,” he joked, playfully nudging Wakko, who grinned back.  
Wakko led Dot to the couch while Yakko strolled into the kitchen.  
Dot clambered onto the couch. Wakko pulled a blanket from his hammerspace and draped it over her shoulders before sitting beside her. He gave her a toothy grin, tongue protruding just the same. Dot couldn’t help but smile back.  
She dragged Wakko closer, throwing half of the blanket over his shoulders. She nestled into his chest while they waited.  
Her brothers’ heartbeats had always been Dot’s remedy to a bad day.  
The steady rhythm reminded her that they were still together in spite of the numerous attempts to pull them apart.  
She tried to memorize it.  
Just in case.  
Yakko returned with three bowls of vanilla ice cream. He passed them out before perching on the arm of the couch. Dot wrapped a corner of the blanket around his waist so that they were all connected.  
“Now, sis, let’s talk about that new haircut of yours,” Yakko joked.  
She glared at him, “Watch it.”  
He smirked, drawing circles in the air with his spoon, “Uhhhhhhh, on second thought, it’s kinda growing on me.”

**Author's Note:**

> Dot deserves more appreciation! She’s a Warner, just as her brothers are, so she should be revered like one! She’s a queen.  
> For the record, I wrote my last fic (A Motor Mouth Muted) on the 11th. I had to wait to set up my AO3 account. I don’t write two fics a day. I wish 😭


End file.
